‘Salt’ and ‘spice’ and nothing is nice

In the sordid history of illicit drug distribution, the brazen marketing of two classes of synthetic drugs has set a new standard for untruths in advertising.

Only criminals with the moral sense of Gila monsters would peddle mind-altering designer drugs as benign legal products. Only customers with no regard for their health would snort, inject, smoke or swallow them.

Marketed to young people, “bath salts” and “spice,” are widely known to mimic the effects of cocaine and marijuana respectively. Labels saying they’re not for human consumption are part of the underworld joke.

No question, the popularity of the designer drugs, typically purchased in head shops and gas stations, is on the rise, as measured by panicked pleas for help after they’ve been taken. In 2010, 3,200 calls were placed to poison centers. Last year, the number spiked to 13,000.

Fortunately, law enforcement, armed with updated legislation, is cracking down.

Last week, federal and state agencies arrested 90 people in 30 states, confiscating 5 million packets of the fake marijuana and 167,000 packages of the stimulants.

A raid on an Escondido operation resulted in arrests and the seizure of thousands of packets of synthetic drugs.

In the war against drugs, no criminals are more vile than those who use the marketplace to get killer designer fashions into the bloodstreams of the young and foolish.